Pioneer of Woodland boys basketball team looks to regroup

Sometimes it's hard for athletes to pinpoint why they don't always play up to their expectations.

It can be harder still for them to admit an opponent might have had something to with that.

To say the Pioneer Patriots didn't meet their expectations in a 69-42 loss to visiting Woodland on Thursday would be a massive understatement. In front of a nearly packed house on hand to see the first installment of the schools' two Tri-County Conference meetings, Pioneer came out as flat as a crepe and stayed that way for most of the game's 32 minutes.

The Patriots missed shots -- they whiffed on at least 30 attempts from the field -- missed teammates with passes, missed energy and enthusiasm and generally missed an opportunity to show a big home crowd their best effort.

Pioneer (3-18, 1-4 TCC) trailed 17-0 before it scored on a Seth Lohman free throw with 1:24 left in the first quarter. The Patriots didn't convert a field goal until 30 seconds later, when Nick Butcher made a basket in the paint.

That proved to be a rarity. With junior center Ean Johansen anchoring their 2-3 zone, the Wolves owned the paint. As the night progressed, Pioneer began launching more and more shots from 3-point range. Junior Joey Galindo didn't attempt a shot from inside the arc; he finished 1 of 5. Gabriel Torres was 1 of 6 from 3-point range, 2 of 9 overall.

Big men Lohman (eight points) and Butcher (five points) spent much of the night misfiring from closer range, suggesting Woodland's zone was having an adverse affect on the Patriots. Johansen, who is listed at 6-foot-10-inches tall but sometimes looms even larger, seemed to discourage any Patriots forays toward the hoop.

But that depends upon your perspective. Butcher thought the Wolves' big man was "not a factor, really, to me. We can get by him.

"Shots just weren't falling. We were getting shots that we want and usually take, but they just weren't falling. It seems like some nights we have them falling down and some nights we don't."

While there is no doubt truth in Butcher's perspective, it's mostly at odds with his coach's. Barry Reese chose to lay his team's shooting woes at the feet of the Wolves.

"We had a couple of looks but the big boy (Johansen) definitely caused us some problems inside," he said. "We knew he was there. We didn't take the ball to the basket with any confidence."

Barely a week ago Pioneer was celebrating an overtime win over Yuba City and feeling good about itself. Galindo was nursing an ankle injury at the time and both senior guard Ramon Beltran and senior wing Jason Whitfield were out with injuries that will likely sideline them for the rest of the season. Those problems, however, seemed like minor speed bumps on the Patriots' fast track back to respectability after back-to-back, one-win seasons.

In the nine days since the win over the Honkers, Pioneer has lost to Natomas, Inderkum and Woodland by 26, 26 and 27 points. The Patriots' thin bench -- they suited up eight players Thursday -- suddenly seems thinner.

Their prospects for a strong TCC season no longer seem bright.

Thursday's loss could be a jumping off point for Pioneer. The question is, will the Patriots be jumping off a springboard or a cliff?

Reese isn't sure. He just knows his team can do better than this.

"No disrespect to Woodland but we've played teams with better records and that had more talent (than the Wolves) and we didn't get smoked like this," he said.